AP Research Student Conducts Study with Local Middle School

By: Lucile Choudhury

Columbus High School seniors in the AP Capstone pathway are currently working on their culminating research project for the year. Eunchan Choo (12) is conducting an especially interesting experiment: To what extent would integrating South Korea’s national math curriculum in Geometry into the state of Georgia middle schools improve student performance on standardized math assessments?

Choo came up with this idea because of his prior experience with the Korean and US educational systems. With this firsthand experience, he quickly realized that there was a large gap between American students’ educational performance in math and that of students in Korea. In Korea, students take higher math courses, putting them on a higher track of math comprehension for years to come.

“I thought the curriculum could be a major factor, and had the possibility of solving poor math performance,” Choo asserts.

To conduct this experiment, Choo is working with Richards Middle School, specifically their math team. All students begin by taking a pre-test to understand what level of comprehension they are currently at. Then, the students are split into two groups: one learning under the Korean curriculum and the other under the Georgia curriculum. Finally, a post-test will be administered to understand changes in math comprehension.

Choo states that this research has been nothing short of amazing because he can work with his former middle school, adding a personal touch to his experiment. However, conducting such intricate research comes with difficulties, and problem-solving is key to presenting a good research paper. Choo states that the most difficult aspect has to do with scheduling meetings and creating instructions based on the curriculum.

Choo’s research does not stop with yielding results, and he hopes to bring real value to the Georgia curriculum and possibly change how students learn in the future.

“My research can help others by providing data for the education department to see which method of instruction is needed to bring the best results for students,” Choo emphasizes.

The broader implications of this study are to diminish education inequality by providing better education methodology for every student in Georgia.